Chinese stock market inspired by rumors – Finance – Kommersant

In the past two days, the Chinese stock market has seen an unexpected recovery. Key indices are growing, the capitalization of companies is increasing by billions of dollars. Experts attribute this situation to the appearance on Chinese platforms of messages that the country’s authorities are allegedly preparing to lift tough anti-COVID restrictions. The optimism of the market is not restrained even by the fact that all these reports do not have any official confirmation.

No one knows for sure who published the first message about a possible lifting of restrictions and whether it is reliable, reports Bloomberg. The post, which appeared Monday evening on the WeChat social network in groups where analysts and fund managers communicate, has neither signatures, nor indications of the source, nor data about it that would inspire confidence.

The report claimed that CPC Central Committee Politburo member Wang Huning, the fourth person in the PRC’s political hierarchy, held a meeting with experts on COVID-19 last Sunday and that the government would soon set up an expert commission to develop a “plan for lifting restrictions.”

At the same time, even the estimated term of “liberalization” was called – March 2023.

The very next morning, a cryptic message went viral throughout the network. When a similar message appeared on Xueqiu, a well-known Hong Kong economist, Hong Kong economist, the market surged upwards during the day. Very soon, the capitalization of the companies included in the MSCI China index has already exceeded $320 billion. At the auction on Wednesday, this figure reached $450 billion.

The prospect of lifting anti-COVID restrictions, which are especially tough in China, caused real euphoria, which is understandable – due to the pandemic and the global recession, China’s economy is now growing at the slowest pace in the last four decades.

As noted by Bloomberg, this case shows how difficult it is to get accurate information in the world’s second largest economy, where such data is strictly guarded.

Often, large-scale measures become known through unofficial leaks that cannot be verified. When asked by the Chinese Foreign Ministry, the agency was told that they did not know anything about these rumors.

Rumors about a possible lifting of covid restrictions are still circulating on Chinese social networks today. A Twitter user who calls himself Shanghai Macro Strategist and has more than 14,000 followers posted screenshots of messages purporting to come from two Chinese brokerages. They confirm the upcoming changes in the anti-COVID policy.

As follows from these reports, a meeting will supposedly be held next Friday on the issue of easing quarantine requirements and transferring greater powers to local authorities on the issue of anti-COVID measures. However, in response to a Bloomberg request, the Shanghai Macro Strategist declined to comment. And in one of the brokerage companies mentioned in his message, Bloomberg said that this is all untrue.

In another post, three analysts from Tianfeng Securities were quoted as saying that anti-covid measures would be eased. When contacted by Bloomberg, these analysts said they had no information on anti-COVID policy.

Chinese officials urged not to read too much about China in the international media.

“A lot of media publications, I would say, they just don’t understand China properly, they are short-sighted,” Fang Xinghai, vice chairman of the China Securities Commission, said at today’s banking summit in Hong Kong. “I would advise international investors to find out for themselves what is actually happening in China and what are the real intentions of our government.”

Alena Miklashevskaya